Is anyone out?

Friday

Oct 5, 2012 at 12:01 AMOct 5, 2012 at 2:37 PM

Sunday’s Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 is appropriately named, though the assistance will be NASCAR-affiliated when crashes occur. This fourth race of NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup is considered the most treacherous and unpredictable, particularly for the 12 drivers who theoretically have a chance to win the championship.

Monte Dutton

TALLADEGA, Ala. – What to do, what to do …

Sunday’s Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 is appropriately named, though the assistance will be NASCAR-affiliated when crashes occur. This fourth race of NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup is considered the most treacherous and unpredictable, particularly for the 12 drivers who theoretically have a chance to win the championship.

“This is the reason everybody in the Chase is still in it,” said Clint Bowyer, who won Talladega Superspeedway’s latter race a year ago.

Maybe it’s a stretch, but Bowyer doesn’t think Chase doormat Matt Kenseth, already trailing Brad Keselowski by 72 points, is done until the events of Sunday have run their course.

“This race could be the decider, even though there are six races after it,” Bowyer added.

Particularly during the first two-thirds of the 188-lap race, most drivers will decide either to run up front, ahead of the drafting snarl, or at the back, leaving a bit of space in order to avoid mayhem. Sometimes it’s not a matter of choice.

“Sometimes you just find yourself there,” Bowyer said. “If I find myself stuck in the middle, I’m going to the back.”

Within the range of error – Brad Keselowski has won at a lot of tracks where his record had not previously been impressive.

But the samples are small. This is only Keselowski’s third full year in Cup, and the first wasn’t particularly successful. In short, he doesn’t let it bother him because he hasn’t raced enough for the numbers to have much validity.

“That’s exactly how it feels,” Keselowski said. “Most of the other drivers come to a track with a pool of stats, and you can’t really compare their numbers to mine.